Story Archive

Jon Oliver with the School of Public Health answers common questions about where ticks are most prevalent and more. 

There are ample mental health resources available for students; the issue can be making those readily apparent and easy to access.

Despite the early warnings from Michael Osterholm to the contrary, very few of us could have imagined in March 2020 that our lives (and sometimes livelihoods) would veer off track so dramatically, and for so long. Osterholm, of course, is a professor in the U of M’s School of Public Health, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, and one of the most interviewed experts throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. 

A focus on mental health has been a theme through President Gabel’s presidency; even before she arrived at the University in the summer of 2019 she vowed that would be a priority.

The last 13 months have brought layer upon layer of challenges and stress to college students everywhere, no less at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. As some of the heaviness lifts, the U of M is looking forward with a systemwide initiative designed to stem the tide and vastly improve student mental health.

Nina Hernandez Beithon is the diversity liaison counselor in Student Counseling Services, which, along with Boynton Mental Health, provides clinical counseling on the Twin Cities campus.

As such, she’s working primarily with students facing an element of race-based trauma—some of it triggered by the killing of George Floyd last May and the uprisings that followed.